The school library at R.V. Daniels Elementary in February 2024. Duval County Public Schools closed the school at the end of hte 2025 academic year. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on June 6, 2025 at 2:56 pm
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The Jacksonville Journey Forward board will send a proposed $3.33 million budget to Mayor Donna Deegan’s office to promote early literacy, provide job training for incarcerated people returning to society and gang prevention programming for its first full year of services.
The Journey Forward board made the budgetary suggestion during its monthly meeting Thursday afternoon. The total amount Journey Forward will receive for its 2025-26 fiscal year will not be known until City Council conducts budget hearings in August and finalizes the city budget in September.
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Journey Forward’s proposal includes:
- $1 million to rebuild the Jacksonville Re-Entry Center programming by providing housing assistance, job training and mental health services for people who are returning to society after incarceration. These dollars would also track recidivism over multiple periods to test the effectiveness of the programming.
- $700,000 to support the Florida Institute of Education’s early learning work at elementary schools and early learning centers on the Westside.
- $300,000 for the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department to strengthen and expand its summertime services.
- $300,000 for health and substance abuse assessments for juveniles who encounter the criminal justice system. These dollars would also provide services to help children complete the sentencing requirements needed for record expungement.
- $300,000 to help collaboration between Duval County Public Schools, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office to reduce chronic absenteeism.
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In the 2023-24 academic year, 30.5% of students in Duval County missed at least 21 days of school. According to the Florida Department of Education, Duval’s percentage was far higher than the statewide average of 19.9%, and higher than the chronic absenteeism percentage of other large, urban school districts in the state.
Betty Burney was the only member of the board who objected to the budget.
Burney applauded how the money was being allocated during the meeting, but she wanted to hear from Duval County Superintendent Christopher Bernier before she could approve the budget.
Chair W.C. Gentry says his goal is to ask Bernier to speak to the Journey Forward board at a future meeting. The board is slated to meet again July 17 and August 21 – the latter date would be during the second week of the 2025-26 academic year.
Gentry says the goal for the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is to listen to community feedback.
“We do have a responsibility to have a convening of community leaders and groups at some point,” Gentry said. “That’s going to take a lot of work. We are going to want to talk to people before we have those meetings. That will be the focus of next year.”
Board members applauded the focus for the coming year. But, did have suggestions for how the Journey Forward to make a broader impact.
Board member and retired JSO deputy Steve Zona said during Thursday’s meeting he would like to understand the Duval County Public Schools’ process for handling students who are suspended from school.
Bernie de la Rionda, board member and retired prosecutor, says he would like to see future years devote monies to victims of crime and victims groups.
Deegan pledged to revive the Jacksonville Journey when she campaigned for mayor in 2023. It’s a recreation of the program formed during former Mayor John Peyton’s tenure nearly 17 years ago. The original Jacksonville Journey received bipartisan praise for reducing violent crime.
The 11-person Jacksonville Journey Forward board first met in February.
The board spent its meetings this spring learning about the civil citation system established by State Attorney Melissa Nelson in 2021; the Duval County recidivism rate; the impact of low literacy scores for Jacksonville’s third grade students and understanding how federal spending cuts would hinder local literacy efforts.
